A one pot wonder.

This is an improvised recipe, with a finished stew (including tender chicken) in an hour. The finished product is great for one of those cold evenings still marking the days in late spring.

(This picture shows the pot after two large portions have been decanted and enjoyed.)

If you don’t want the meat just replace the chicken with a tasty vegetable alternative like Jerusalem Artichokes, sweet potato or turnip (and a veg stock cube of course).

There is no thickening of the sauce so the only thing to be wary of (if a coeliac) is the choice of stock cube. It can easily be kosher (no butter, milk etc being used), halal or any other beliefs based food choice.

Maybe it should be renamed the Universal One Pot Wonder (using produce and flavourings from your own geographical area). Perhaps not, it doesn’t exactly trip of the tongue.

If you are a fan of Nigella Lawson you can cook it yourself in a suitably unctuous and seductive way and if you are more of a John Terode just slap it all in without any messing around (as would Daliah – long overdue for culinary beatification in my mind).

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (trimmed of fat and cut into four pieces each)
• 1 large onion roughly chopped
• 1 large carrot cut lengthways and sliced
• A handful of green beans chopped into 2cm pieces
• A large handful of new potatoes, halved
• A large handful of mushrooms quartered
• 1 chicken stock cube
• A dollop of tomato purée
• A good splash of Worcester sauce
• Seasoning to your taste

Method:

1. In a large lidded pot soften your onions (with fry light).
2. Add your chicken pieces and brown gently.
3. Crumble a chicken stock cube onto the mix.
4. Add a water to cover the mix easily and bring to the boil and simmer for ten minutes (with lid on)
5. Add all the veg apart from the mushrooms and add more water to cover all the veg and meat. Bring back to the boil and simmer for forty minutes. (With lid on)
6. Add the tomato purée, Worcester sauce and seasoning and stir well.
7. Add the mushrooms.
8. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Serve in a deep bowl with a knife, fork and spoon (to get all that gravy).

And the good news is there is only one pot to wash (plus bowls and cutlery unless you eat straight from the saucepan).